Inside an enviornment in Tampere, Finland in mid-December, future high PWHL draft prospects confronted off in a match ultimate.
On the Girls’s Euro Hockey Tour (or Six Nations Match), the Canadians confronted an American roster stacked with senior nationwide workforce expertise, together with Lacey Eden, Abbey Murphy, Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards.
A Canadian squad with much less worldwide expertise caught within the recreation till the ultimate minutes, when the Individuals pulled forward on a Murphy objective for an eventual 5-3 win. Canadian goaltender Ève Gascon had 33 saves within the loss, placing up a efficiency her coach described as “phenomenal.”
“Not essentially the outcomes in opposition to the U.S. that we have been hoping for, however we’re tremendous pleased with our workforce’s performances all through the course of the match,” Canadian nationwide growth workforce head coach Alison Domenico stated in an interview with CBC Sports activities.
“In that final recreation alone to type of come again, being down a pair, it may have been simple to pack it in.”
Although a number of gamers on each side of that ultimate are prone to be excessive draft picks within the PWHL throughout the subsequent few years, the match wasn’t broadcast in Canada, nor was it streamed by Hockey Canada.
Whereas many Canadians will watch high NHL prospects on the world junior hockey championship for males below 20, which begins on Dec. 26, there is not any world championship for ladies of the identical age.
There is a world championship for ladies below 18, which can happen in Finland in January and is broadcast nationally on TSN.
However there are few worldwide alternatives between that match and the senior nationwide workforce, making a growth hole as ladies goal to succeed in the very best stage of the game.
For followers, it additionally means fewer alternatives to see and get enthusiastic about future PWHL stars. Most will go from the under-18 match to play within the NCAA, however these video games aren’t all the time simple to seek out in Canada, both.
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Earlier this 12 months, the IIHF stated a ladies’s world junior championship is on the horizon, however is not prone to occur for a number of years, the Canadian Press reported.
Rising the participant pool
In Europe, the issue is that there aren’t sufficient feminine gamers to fill groups on the under-18 aspect, a senior nationwide workforce and one other age group in between, in line with Mike Helber, the director of hockey operations for the Swedish Ice Hockey Affiliation.
“What is going to find yourself taking place is that our greatest gamers will play at the least in two of the tournaments, possibly even all three,” Helber stated in an interview with CBC Sports activities.
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On the flip aspect, it is troublesome for gamers to develop with out alternatives to play in opposition to high gamers. Helber’s objective is to extend the variety of Swedish gamers between the ages of 19 and 24, and to get extra of these gamers coming to North America for school.
These gamers develop enjoying in opposition to high Canadian and American prospects, and convey what they study again to Sweden after they return to their nationwide workforce, Helber stated.
“We have to get extra gamers over in direction of North America to see how good the gamers really are,” stated Helber, an American who performed collegiate hockey on the College of Michigan. “They’re shocked at occasions.”
As soon as the participant pool grows, Helber could be open to seeing a world championship for college-aged gamers.
Within the meantime, he nonetheless needs to see Swedish gamers getting alternatives to compete in opposition to different international locations.
He appreciated the format of the Six Nations match, and can also be in search of alternatives for the Swedish workforce to compete in opposition to American faculty groups.
“They should see the extent that North American athletes play at,” he stated. “The easiest way to try this is to seek out methods to play in opposition to them.”
Highlight on future PWHL expertise
Nations weren’t restricted to sending gamers of a sure age to the Six Nations match. The PWHL took a break throughout the match however most European PWHL gamers opted to stick with their membership groups, with a number of exceptions, like Boston Fleet goaltender Emma Söderberg (Sweden).
Like the USA, Canada despatched its growth workforce, which has solely a handful of alternatives to compete annually. The workforce additionally performed a three-game sequence in opposition to the Individuals this previous summer time, which the U.S. gained two video games to 1.
Some gamers on the event workforce could possibly be a giant a part of Canada’s senior nationwide workforce on the 2030 Olympics and past, together with defender Nicole Gosling, who gained a world championship with the senior workforce in April, and Caitlin Kraemer, Canada’s all-time leading goal-scorer at the women’s under-18 world championship.
With no in-between world championship for these gamers, it is essential to seek out methods to maintain getting them worldwide expertise, Domenico stated.
“Any means we are able to get them enjoying different international locations and even simply getting used to going abroad, getting the jet lag plan,” she stated. “Going by means of all of these experiences are actually essential once you get to that subsequent stage.”
For the PWHL, there could possibly be a number of advantages to having the very best up-and-coming college-aged gamers competing in opposition to one another.
It may assist groups scout prospects. It may additionally assist introduce a participant like Kraemer to extra followers earlier than she will get drafted into the PWHL, similar to a world junior match has accomplished for high younger gamers like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard.
“The PWHL is supportive of the event of ladies’s hockey in any respect ranges, which incorporates occasions that would supply higher alternatives for participant growth and that proceed to develop the sport globally,” the league’s senior vice-president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, advised CBC Sports activities.
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